Category: History (Page 2 of 2)

The latest Strathbungo newsletter includes the curious discovery that Q, James Bond’s favourite quartermaster, was actually a former Strathbungo resident. The story comes courtesy of the Herald, and the sharp eyes of local resident David Cook.

Imagine the curtains twitching back in 1956 when the CID called at 17 Regent Park Square. They wanted to question the licence-holder of a revolver matching the gun used by one of Scotland’s most notorious serial killers. Geoffrey Boothroyd, a young technical rep at ICI, told them that his gun was actually down south being illustrated for the cover of Ian Fleming’s next James Bond novel, From Russia with Love.

That old excuse…

And it was true. Boothroyd, a gun collector, had written to Fleming earlier that year to say that Bond’s .25 Beretta was “really a lady’s gun”. He suggested instead a manly Smith & Wesson .38. Little did he know that it was also the weapon of choice for one Peter Manuel, then on a murderous spree that would claim seven lives, the last three in Burnside.

The detectives eventually got their man and Manuel got justice at the end of a rope. Boothroyd and Fleming continued their friendly correspondence. At the end of From Russia with Love, Rosa Klebb managed to stab Bond with her famous boot, partly because his Beretta got caught in his holster.

In his next novel, Dr No, Fleming included a whole chapter in which Bond was introduced by M to the armourer, Major Boothroyd. He confiscated Bond’s Beretta – “Ladies’ gun, sir” – for a Walther PPK, with the Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight .38 revolver as back up. A new holster was also recommended, and all was based closely on Geoffrey Boothroyd’s advice. Daniel Craig still uses the Walther PPK to this day.

Oddly the character Q never appeared in Fleming’s novels; he only referred to Q Branch, suppliers of gadgets. Major Boothroyd appeared just the once, and it wasn’t clear he was from Q Branch either.

Boothroyd himself became firearms consultant for Dr No, the first Bond movie, and also advised on such matters as how to set an ocean on fire – no doubt his work at ICI came in handy. Peter Dawson played Major Boothroyd in the movie version of the above scene from Dr No.

It was only in the second movie, From Russia with Love, that Major Boothroyd also became known as Q, and was played famously by Desmond Llewellyn, in that movie and for the subsequent 36 years.

Geoffrey Boothroyd was quite an eccentric who once told Fleming: “I cherish a dream that one day a large tiger or lion will escape from the zoo or a travelling circus and I can bag it in Argyll Street.” That never happened, but he went on to become one of the world’s leading authorities on shotguns and handguns.

The Herald, October 2015: The article that prompted this story

Letters of Note: Fleming’s reply to Boothroyd’s original letter, addressed to 17 Regent Park Square

The Guns of James Bond – BBC Archive: Mr Boothroyd himself, in a 1964 short presented by Sean Connery, explaining his reasoning behind his choice of weapons. The film appears to have been shot inside his Strathbungo home; although by this time he had moved from 17 to 11 Regent Park Square, where he lived from 1956 to 1971. A recent resident of No 11 recalls his parents purchasing  the house from the Boothroyds, and remembers the house being full of weapons, including a Gatling gun in the living room. Does the current resident recognise it?

I am slowly amassing a history of Strathbungo, including stories of former residents of note such as this. If you have any stories to tell, or wish to know more about your own home, please get in touch. One day I hope it will all make it onto the blog.

(Updated 14/3/2016)

Here’s a genealogical request:

“I have traced my family to Strathbungo Village. Any information on the Mclachlan’s from 1793: Barbara Mclachlan had three children Daniel (1822), Catherine (1824) and Barbara (1834). Also where can I get or buy photos or books about the village? Would appreciate any info. Helen”

Help us create a fascinating profile of the past 150 years in the Bungo!

Like researching family history, tracing the history of one’s house is a fascinating insight into the past. What sort of person lived in the houses and tenements of Strathbungo? Were they industrial workers, tradesmen or professionals? Did they work locally or commute into the commercial and industrial city centre? Did they have servants? And how many children?

The Strathbungo Society would like to encourage and assist a co-ordinated attempt to record all the past owners of our houses and illuminate the lives of the families that have lived here over the past 150 years.

The sources of this information are easy to find in Glasgow’s Mitchell Library. The most comprehensive and easily accessible are the annual Trade Directories, which list the householder at every address, including their occupation and often their place of work.

For more detailed information on families and servants, the ten-yearly census returns record the names, relationship to the head of the household, age, marital status, occupation and place of birth for each person in the house on the night the census was taken.

Voters’ rolls (or electoral registers) list the names of all those eligible to vote in local and general elections, and valuation rolls list the owners and the rateable value of commercial and domestic properties and the names and occupations of tenants.

All we need is a handful of enthusiastic volunteers who would be willing to spend a few hours a month in the peaceful atmosphere of the Mitchell Local History section recording these names and addresses.

If there is sufficient interest in this the Society will provide an Excel spreadsheet, or paper form, for you to fill in. We will set up a spreadsheet on our website on which the information can be displayed for all to see – a unique resource for every Strathbungo resident and local historian.

Extracts from articles by Lucy Bannerman

(The Herald, April & May 2004)

One Moray Place, a grade A-listed building and the former home of one of the country’s most famous architects, Alexander (Greek) Thomson, is [part] of a nineteenth-century terrace in Strathbungo on Glasgow’s south side.

Famed for his love of the horizontal lines and geometry of Greek architecture, Alexander Thomson moved into the first house of Moray Place in 1861. The terrace, which he designed a couple years previously for a local builder, was described by Henry Russell-Hitchcock, an American historian, as ‘with little question, the finest of all nineteenth-century terraces, both in design and execution, and one of the world’s most superb pieces of design based on Greek precedent.’
Thomson apparently modelled the terrace on the Stoa of Attalos II of Athens circa 150BC.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Thomson, famed for his love of classical styles, paid particular attention to the design of his own home, decorating the property with his trademark oriental motifs and cornicing. As well as buildings, Thomson designed doors, stencils, furniture and textiles.